Jeremiah 31:20-32:22

English Standard Version

²⁰^(A)Is Ephraim my dear son?
    ^(B)Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
    I do remember him still.
^(C)Therefore my heart^[a] yearns for him;
    I will surely have mercy on him,
declares the Lord.

²¹^(D)“Set up road markers for yourself;
    make yourself guideposts;
^(E)consider well the highway,
    ^(F)the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel,
    return to these your cities.
²²^(G)How long will you waver,
    ^(H)O faithless daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth:
    a woman encircles a man.”

²³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, ^(I)when I restore their fortunes:

^(J)“‘The Lord bless you, ^(K)O habitation of righteousness,
^(L)O holy hill!’

²⁴^(M)And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and ^(N)the farmers and those who wander with their flocks. ²⁵For I will ^(O)satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

²⁶At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

²⁷^(P)“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when ^(Q)I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with ^(R)the seed of man and the seed of beast. ²⁸And it shall come to pass that ^(S)as I have watched over them ^(T)to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, ^(U)so I will watch over them ^(V)to build and to plant, declares the Lord. ²⁹In those days they shall no longer say:

^(W)“‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge.’

³⁰^(X)But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

The New Covenant

³¹^(Y)“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make ^(Z)a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³²not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when ^(AA)I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, ^(AB)though I was their husband, declares the Lord. ³³^(AC)For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: ^(AD)I will put my law within them, and I will write it ^(AE)on their hearts. ^(AF)And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ ^(AG)for they shall all know me, ^(AH)from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For ^(AI)I will forgive their iniquity, and ^(AJ)I will remember their sin no more.”

³⁵Thus says the Lord,
who ^(AK)gives the sun for light by day
    and ^(AL)the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    ^(AM)the Lord of hosts is his name:
³⁶^(AN)“If this fixed order departs
    from before me, declares the Lord,
then shall the offspring of Israel cease
    from being a nation before me forever.”

³⁷Thus says the Lord:
“If the heavens above can be measured,
and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
^(AO)then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
for all that they have done,
declares the Lord.”

³⁸^(AP)“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord ^(AQ)from the Tower of Hananel to ^(AR)the Corner Gate. ³⁹^(AS)And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. ⁴⁰^(AT)The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the ^(AU)brook Kidron, to the corner of ^(AV)the Horse Gate toward the east, ^(AW)shall be sacred to the Lord. ^(AX)It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”

Jeremiah Buys a Field During the Siege

32 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord ^(AY)in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, ^(AZ)which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ²At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet ^(BA)was shut up in ^(BB)the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah. ³For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^(BC)Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it; ⁴^(BD)Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, ^(BE)but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. ⁵And ^(BF)he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the Lord. ^(BG)Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’?”

⁶Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: ⁷Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, ^(BH)‘Buy my field that is at ^(BI)Anathoth, ^(BJ)for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ ⁸Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in ^(BK)the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at ^(BL)Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

⁹“And I bought the field at ^(BM)Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and ^(BN)weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. ¹⁰^(BO)I signed the deed, ^(BP)sealed it, ^(BQ)got witnesses, and ^(BR)weighed the money on scales. ¹¹Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy. ¹²And I gave the deed of purchase to ^(BS)Baruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of ^(BT)the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in ^(BU)the court of the guard. ¹³I charged ^(BV)Baruch in their presence, saying, ¹⁴‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. ¹⁵For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and ^(BW)fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’

Jeremiah Prays for Understanding

¹⁶“After I had given the deed of purchase to ^(BX)Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: ¹⁷‘Ah, Lord God! It is ^(BY)you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by ^(BZ)your outstretched arm! ^(CA)Nothing is too hard for you. ¹⁸^(CB)You show steadfast love to thousands, ^(CC)but you repay the guilt of fathers ^(CD)to their children after them, O great and ^(CE)mighty God, whose name is the ^(CF)Lord of hosts, ¹⁹^(CG)great in counsel and ^(CH)mighty in deed, ^(CI)whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, ^(CJ)rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. ²⁰You have shown ^(CK)signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all mankind, ^(CL)and have made a name for yourself, as at this day. ²¹^(CM)You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and ^(CN)outstretched arm, ^(CO)and with great terror. ²²And you gave them this land, ^(CP)which you swore to their fathers to give them, ^(CQ)a land flowing with milk and honey.